The world’s most violent region

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) recently conducted a study on violence in Central America titled “Opening Spaces for Citizen Security and Human Development” – in Spanish, “Abrir espacio a la seguridad ciudadana y el desarrollo humano.” This study looks at the impact of violence and crime on the quality of life of people in Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.

According to the report, 79,000 people died violent deaths between 2003 and 2008.  Another study put the number of fatalities at 120,000 between 2000 and 2009. The report also states that economic damages due to violence, including what was spent fighting crime was around US$6.5 billion.  That is close to 8 percent of the region’s GDP.  Of the 6 countries, Costa Rica and Panama are the only two countries in Central America where human and economic under-development and poverty are not widespread and where the crime rate is lowest.

In the Americas, Central America has the greatest degree of economic inequality in Latin America.  According to the Report, the region is steeped in “gender inequality, marginalization and segregation of ethnic minorities and discrimination on the grounds of language, religion and sexual preference. Migrants from the poorest countries, like Nicaragua and Honduras, are stigmatized as criminals in neighbouring countries with higher human development indices, where they go in search of a better life.

The report identified 24 illicit activities, ranging from armed robbery to arms trade and trafficking in persons; it also indicated that the transnational gangs like the 18^th Street Gang and MS 13 are the most complex, sophisticated and harmful organizations in the region.  They operate complex and highly organized drug trafficking operations and are doing the most harm to regional stability.

In the area of drug trafficking alone, there are 5 serious threats to security: killing over turf and drug territories, dominance over consumer cartels, hired killers, bribery of local law officials and large spending by governments on law enforcement and crime prevention. Today, nearly three million firearms circulate in Central America, two million of them illegally.

According to Roberto Orozco of the non-governmental Institute for Strategic Studies and Public Policies the most violent part of the region is the north.  Organized crime is more embedded there than in the southern part of Central America, because Mexico is so close, as well as the cartels that control the passage of illegal immigrants and the cocaine routes.”

While in Belize the presence of gangs like the 18^th Street Gang and MS 13 are not prevalent, organized criminal activity is evident.  Like the Latino Gangs in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, gang activity in Belize is the main reason for the high number of murders.  Indeed Belize’s murder rate is almost 33 per 100,000, which is far below the 25 per 100,000 in South America.  This financial year Government will spend close to $107 million on National Security alone; this represents almost 13 percent of the national budget.

When you consider what fighting crime and violence is doing to societies in Belize and in the region, the massive cost to the taxpayers and the overall instability being created in the region, it should come as no surprise that leaders in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico have all placed this issue as the number one priority.   Considering the fact that Central America has now become one of the most violent places in the world, where deaths are caused not from wars or military intervention, but due to illegal activity and antisocial behavior it makes the situation even more troubling.

The UNDP report proposes that Central American Governments raise the civic and ethical values among its population, that the region professionalize its police, strengthen institutions and implement special strategies to discourage young people from becoming involved in organized criminal activity.  It also speaks to creating opportunities for development, to create new jobs, provide education for all and of course sports.

The document also states that both the strong-arm and the soft touch approach have failed and that a comprehensive strategy must include preventive and coercive actions, as well as work in harmony with the justice system.  In addition the report speaks to the establishment of values of civility.

None of these recommendations are new. In fact, the Hon. John Briceño, the Leader of the Opposition, speaking on the issue of crime in the House of Representatives, offered many of these suggestions to help deal with the crime situation in Belize.

The time has come for all of us to make public safety our number one concern and for the Government to make crime its number one priority, to find the political will to deal with this menace to our development and to join with governments in the region to make Central America less violent for this is not who we are as a people.

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